 This story continues this season's story arc of The Doctor attempting to get his travelling companion Belinda Chandra back to Earth on the 24th May 2025. In this attempt the TARDIS arrives on the Harmony Arena space station in the midst of the 803rd Interstellar Song Contest. There The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), discover a futuristic version of the Eurovision Song Contest. But two Hellions, Kid (Freddie Fox) and Wynn Aura-Kin (Iona Anderson), hijack the space arena hosting the competition and threaten to kill all the spectators and viewers as revenge against the event's sponsor. However, near the end of this story The Doctor and Belida learn, via a hologram of Graham Norton, why they have been unable to return to Earth - both Earth and humanity having been wiped out on the 24th May 2025.
But the standout moment of this story occurs straight after The Doctor and Belinda Chandra depart in the TARDIS when Mrs Flood (played by Anita Dobson), the mysterious character who has appeared throughout the Fifteenth Doctor's era, is revealed to be an incarnation of The Rani, a villainous Time Lord. She undergoes a 'bi-generation' process, from which a new version of The Rani emerges (played by Archie Panjabi). This story also marks the return of Susan (Carole Ann Ford), The Doctor’s granddaughter, who last appeared in the show in 1983.
This story was written by Juno Dawson and directed by Ben A Williams. This was the first Doctor Who story written by Juno Dawson, who is a best-selling author that had previously worked on the 2022-23 "Doctor Who: Redacted" podcast starring Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. She was first contacted by Russell T Davies to write for the show in 2023 with a plot based on 'Die Hard meets Eurovision'.
Juno Dawson has stated that she first watched the show with her grandmother when she was aged ten, and that writing for the show, which she described as 'The best TV show of all time', was a dream come true for her. Her first idea for a Doctor Who story would have been a disaster plot taking inspiration from The Poseidon Adventure, but this was abandoned when it was realised that this would be too expensive.
As a tie-in with the theme of this story, Real-world Eurovision commentators Rylan Clark and Graham Norton both appear in this story as themselves. A further tie-in had been planned with Ncuti Gatwa as the intended United Kingdom jury spokesperson in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. However, he was unable to participate and so was replaced by singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Freddie Fox appeared as this story's antagonist, Kid. Among his many and varied acting credits Freddie Fox starred in Russell T Davies' 2015 Channel 4 drama Cucumber. He has said 'I had the most amazing time making this show and feel honoured to have been asked to be a part of Russell's crazy, bonkers, beautiful vision. Sharing space with Ncuti Gatwa's iconic Doctor was special beyond imagining. If audiences enjoy watching it half as much as I did making it, televisions are on course to explode right across the world!'.
Carole Ann Ford’s appearance in this story was as a cameo. Susan was a regular in the show from its inception in 1963 until 1964. It has been over 40 years since her last appearance in a mainline story of the show, since the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary special "The Five Doctors", and after her last on-screen appearance in the 1993 Children In Need special mini-story "Dimensions in Time".
Russell T Davies first approached Carole Ann Ford about returning to the show when they met at the premiere screening for "The Star Beast" in November 2023. It has been reported that Carole Ann Ford said that she believed the Doctor Who fan’s relationship with the media industry as being responsible for her return. Carole Ann Ford's scenes were filmed on a closed set, with the production staff being required to sign non-disclosure agreements.
Christina Rotondo, who portrayed Liz Lizardine in this story, is a session vocalist and songwriter known for her performance as the voice of Janis Goblin in the 2023 Christmas special "The Church on Ruby Road" where she provided the lead vocals for The Goblin Song.
The remainder of the cast included Charlie Condou and Kadiff Kirwan as Mike and Gary Gabbastone, as well as Julie Dray, Kiruna Stamell, Miriam-Teak Lee, and Akemnji Ndifornyen guest starring as Sabine, Nina Maxwell, Cora Saint Bavier and Len Kazah respectively.
In the Radio Times, so as to keep the re-appearances of Susan and The Rani a surprise, Carole Ann Ford and Archie Panjabi remained uncredited. While Rylan Clark was credited as simply 'Rylan'.
This story was filmed at Wolf Studios in Wales. The Harmony Arena was made to look as if it could hold around 100,000 attendees. However, because hiring that many extras was unfeasible, only 100 extras were used. Each extra was scanned digitally, and then a 'digi-double' was created that allowed them to be duplicated in post-production.
Many of the alien costumes were reused from previous stories (mostly from past works by Millennium FX) but had modifications made to them so that they appeared as new species. A mix of masks and prosthetics were used to provide a variety in what was accomplishable technically. Camera tests occurred on the 6th March 2024 at Wolf Studios.
Over half of the soundstages at Wolf Studios were used for the filming of this story. The logistics for the recording of this story caused the crew to feel like they were producing two distinct programmes.
The scenes containing pieces of the singing competition had to be filmed first so that the footage could appear on displays in the production control room set. Some of these were shot up to 10 days prior so that post-production work could take place before using the pre-recorded footage.
The bi-generation scene was filmed on soundstage 6 at Wolf Studios on the 10th May 2024. By this time, production on "Wish World/The Reality War", the story in the following block, had already commenced. Director Ben A Williams viewed the Doctor Who: Unleashed episode for the 2023 Fourteenth Doctor story "The Giggle" as a reference on how best to direct this scene. The same steel support was used for both scenes.
Juno Dawson and Russell T Davies co-wrote the lyrics for most of the songs included in this story. These were then sent to Murray Gold who wrote the lyrics for 'Dugga Doo'. Murray Gold composed four original tracks for this story.
The Doctor is seen surviving in the vacuum of space using his respiratory bypass system.
The Doctor once again uses his sonic screwdriver to disarm someone (see "Let's Kill Hitler" and "The Return of Doctor Mysterio").
The Doctor reveals that he was at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 when ABBA won for Sweden and Olivia Newton-John came in fourth for the UK. Belinda reveals that she enjoyed watching the contest with her parents when she was little.
This story explores The Doctor's darker nature coming through as shown by the Fifteenth Doctor's uncharacteristically threatening behaviour towards this story's main antagonist Kid and his ruthless attack on him with a glove capable of creating hard light holograms that can cause harm to organic creatures. This story gives an explanation for this stark contrast in the Fifteenth Doctor as it also explores the emotional impact of once again believing himself to be the last of the Time Lords has had on The Doctor, as he would later reveal to Belinda that his attack on Kid was brought on by Kid's threat to kill trillions across the universe - triggering and reminding The Doctor of the genocide of the Time Lords at the hands of the War Master.
This story's inclusion of The Doctor's granddaughter, Susan, implies that she survived the genocide of the Time Lords by the Spy Master. While the Tenth Doctor, during Season Twenty Nine (New Series 3), believed all of his family, including his granddaughter, had died during the Last Great Time War, Susan herself was used as a red herring in "The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death" when the Fifteenth Doctor initially comes to believe that Susan Triad was actually an incarnation of his granddaughter. Susan's older appearance in this story sees her begging The Doctor to stop attacking Kid via a psychic link to contact her grandfather. After experiencing this vision, The Doctor once again expresses uncertainty over her fate (see "Spyfall", "Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children" and "The Devil's Chord").
The revelation that Anita Dobson's mysterious Mrs Flood is actually an incarnation of the Time Lady known as The Rani occurred during a mid-credits scene. This scene shows Mrs Flood undergoing a bi-generation into a new incarnation of The Rani played by Archie Panjabi - who declares that she is 'the definite article'.
Two versions of the same costume were made for Anita Dobson and Archie Panjabi to wear after their bi-generation.
This story not only reveals that Mrs Flood has actually been trying to find The Doctor throughout this season but also how she has been able to appear in the same locations as The Doctor. Revealed that she is an incarnation of The Rani - and so a Time Lady - suggest that she is using an unseen TARDIS or some other form of time travel technology to follow The Doctor. This therefore gives a plausible explanation for her seemingly random appearances during the previous stories.
The reveal that Mrs Flood is The Rani at the end of this story makes "The Church on Ruby Road", the first appearance of The Rani, in a story of the main show, since the 1987 Seventh Doctor story "Time and The Rani", while the 1993 Children In Need special mini-story "Dimensions in Time" had been this character's actual last on-screen appearance. The Rani was originally played by Kate O'Mara who, as well as previously appearing in the "Time and The Rani", first appeared in the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "The Mark of The Rani".
Anita Dobson’s portrayal marks the first time on-screen that The Rani has been portrayed by someone other than Kate O'Mara. Though, Mrs Flood was not the second incarnation of The Rani to appear in the show. Before Kate O'Mara's death in 2014 there had been plans for her to reprise the role in new audio stories produced by Big Finish Productions. However, her death occurred weeks before this could happen. Kate O'Mara had though given her permission that the project was to go ahead, along with her blessing for a new incarnation of The Rani to be introduced, in the event of her death. Big Finish Productions therefore introduced Siobhan Redmond as The Rani's second incarnation in the 2014 Sixth Doctor audio story "The Rani Elite".
This story saw the second bi-generation of the show, it was previously seen in "The Giggle" when the Fourteenth Doctor bi-generated into the Fifteenth Doctor.
The new Rani announces that she plans to bring The Doctor 'absolute terror', causing Mrs Flood to comment that she had already said that (see "The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death").
Cora initially claimed that she was from the planet Trion. (It was revealed in the 1984 Fifth Doctor story "Planet of Fire" that this is the home planet of Vislor Turlough). Later in this story it is then revealed that Cora is actually from Hellia.
The Cloister Bell again is heard to ring as the TARDIS attempts to land on the 24th May 2025. The Cloister Bell was first heard to ring in the 1981 Fourth Doctor story "Logopolis" and is the TARDIS warning of impending danger.
Kid tries to use a delta wave during the song contest to kill viewers across the galaxy as revenge against the event's sponsor. A delta wave was last seen being used in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways".
This story continues the usage of the word 'Mavity', the new name for 'gravity' after time was inadvertently altered by Donna Noble making a gravity pun at Isaac Newton during the 2023 Fourteenth Doctor story "Wild Blue Yonder".
It is revealed that the contest began with 50,000 contestants who were then whittled down to 40 finalists from 40 different worlds.
The live audience includes alien species that resemble snakes, pigs, vultures, chameleons and wasps. There were also creatures that were green-skinned, large-headed, horned and fin-headed.
It is mentioned that the contest is being broadcasted to the planets: Lizoko, Alpha Centauri, the Zygon New Colony, Grimbald, Piziatora, Parallel 5, Grajick Minor, Trion, Neptunica and other planets along the entire Western Galactic Arm.
Items in the Interstellar Song Contest Exhibition include a poster for Martin Marvin who sang 'Lovely My Lovely', another for the finals of the 600th Interstellar Song Contest, another for the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne 1966 at Villa Louvigny (featuring flags of Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Norway, Finland, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Monaco, France, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom), an Interstellar 700 poster, as well as other photos and clothing worn by various acts.
The acts heard in this story are: Liz Lizardine, from Lizoko, who sings her song 'I Love You But My Heart Says No!' and, from the dress rehearsal, Dugga Doo, from Grimbald, who sings 'Dugga Doo' and Cora Saint Bavier, from Trion, who sings 'My Big Feet'.
After first hearing about Earth's nonexistence in "The Well", this story sees The Doctor and his travelling companion finally learn, via a startling revelation given to them by a hologram of Graham Norton, why they have been unsuccessful in returning to Earth in the previous four stories in this season - learning that the Earth and humanity have both been wiped out on the 24th May 2025 from an unknown incident. The Doctor and Belinda attempt to return to that date but as they do so the doors to the TARDIS are violently blown apart.
This story was broadcast on BBC One on the same night as the actual final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest on the 17th May 2025. It was also released on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ on the same day.
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies revealed there was a question mark over whether this story would actually get a BBC One transmission on the 17th May 2025 and so could only be released in the UK on the BBC iPlayer. Speaking during a Q&A for the new run, Russell T Davies is reported as saying: 'The most exciting week of all is the Eurovision week, because that afternoon is the FA Cup Final live on BBC One. At 8 o'clock at night is Eurovision live across Europe. We're in the middle. If the football has lots of goals and things, going into extra time and penalties, we get crushed in the middle. It's like we cannot move - the football can't move, Eurovision can't move. So we genuinely don't know if we'll be transmitted that day. It’ll be on the iPlayer, but you'll have to sit there that day. They said to us, “Do you want to move it?” and I said, “That’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever heard. Let’s find out if we’re transmitting. Let’s feel alive”. So that Saturday is going to be fun'.
This story received positive reviews from critics, who praised the script, its humour, Ncuti Gatwa's performance, the political subtext involving the Hellions, and the return of Susan and The Rani. However, there was criticism over the fast pacing, lack of emotional depth, and the weak development of Kid as the story’s villain.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story written by Juno Dawson.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Ben A Williams.
The first appearance in the main show of Susan, The Doctor's granddaughter, since the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary special "The Five Doctors".
The first appearance of The Rani, in a story of the main show, since the 1987 Seventh Doctor story "Time and The Rani".
The first time on-screen that The Rani has been portrayed by someone other than Kate O'Mara.
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